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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23675371">The One Thing (Worth Getting Up For)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu'>Nununununu</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Breakfast, Caretaking, Cooking, Dumplings, Food, M/M, Pre-Slash, Slice of Life, Touching</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:21:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>740</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23675371</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>It wouldn’t be a fair competition, after all, if Kakashi took the test on an empty stomach.</i>
</p>
<p>Gai cooks himself and his roommate breakfast.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Flash In The Pan: A Food Flash Exchange</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The One Thing (Worth Getting Up For)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinouterspace/gifts">catsinouterspace</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For catsinouterspace. Inspired by the prompts: college students do their best to make food, cooking for someone else (plus a bit of cooking together), and dumplings are the real love language. </p>
<p>Title from the quote "There are times when breakfast seems the one thing worth getting up for" by Peter De Vries.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>It’s a beautiful morning.</p>
<p>Gai finishes his twentieth lap of the college campus – he’s barely broken a sweat, which seems almost a waste of his new green headband – and jogs up the six flights of stairs to the room he shares with Kakashi.</p>
<p>His fellow student is buried under a heap of blankets with just a shock of hair puffing out from beneath his pillow, the exact same position he was in when Gai left him. A number of telltale lumps under the covers indicate that Kakashi has taken his porn collection to bed with him.</p>
<p>“Good to see you this fine day, my rival!” Gai is going to beat Kakashi today in their upcoming test, he’s sure of it. Hard work and determination will win against –</p>
<p>Well, Kakashi, who is just too clever to need to attend lectures – he sleeps in or turns up halfway through them with a poor excuse or spends the time sitting at the back of the hall drawing h<span class="ILfuVd"><span class="e24Kjd">enohenomoheji </span></span>– and then aces every test the professors give them anyway.</p>
<p>They’d received equal grades last time though, and a tiny smile had flickered at the corner of Kakashi’s lips as he’d waved off Gai’s beaming enthusiasm.</p>
<p>With his potential victory in mind, Gai sets off to shower and then to cook them both breakfast in the student halls’ disgusting shared kitchen. After cleaning it thoroughly first. It wouldn’t be a fair competition, after all, if Kakashi took the test on an empty stomach.</p>
<p>After the initial challenge of deciding what to make based on rather random selection of ingredients available and the limited selection of necessary items such as crockery, Gai gets to work with a will. As if summoned by the possibility of food, Kakashi slopes into the kitchen once he’s finished mixing his own improved version of soft dough for a mountain of dumplings, with some powdered miso included as a nod to his roommate’s usual preference and a couple of other additional inspiring options Gai’s certain Kakashi will enjoy. He’s got a pot of steaming tea on the rickety table set out in readiness.</p>
<p>“Guh,” Kakashi says through the hoodie collar half over his face as he practically falls on the teapot, inhaling the cup he just about manages to pour.</p>
<p>“Never at your best in the mornings, eh?” Chuckling, Gai puts the dumplings on to microwave, turning them up high to ensure they’re ready for when Kakashi’s finished his drink.</p>
<p>“No, don’t –” Kakashi’s abruptly by his side, amazing bedhead and all, and the side of his hand brushes Gai’s.</p>
<p>Despite sharing a room, it’s rare for them to touch. They both freeze, just for a second. Kakashi’s skin is cool and dry against Gai’s warmer hand.</p>
<p>“Don’t microwave them?” Kakashi slouches back into nonchalance after that moment, his single visible eyelid beneath his hair curving as he smiles.</p>
<p>“You want to – boil them,” Gai eyes the cooker distrustfully. The last time he’d seen Kakashi using a saucepan, the contents had been on fire. As for Gai, he’d only given up on using a steamer for optimum health after the fourth one he’d provided the kitchen had been broken by people unknown, Kakashi informing him that the microwave could be used for a similar effect.</p>
<p>“Please?” Kakashi tries and, that’s it, Gai is doomed. His rival might have whipped out one of his novels and buried his nose in it as he says the word, but all the same –</p>
<p>Puffing up with pleasure at this development, Gai acquiesces and they manage to get the dumplings cooked with the fire alarm only going off once, and minimum mopping up with the nearest dubious tea towel Gai makes a mental note to wash. Again.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>What matters is that Kakashi sits outside on the tiny balcony with him and makes a “hmm” noise low in his throat at his first mouthful of dumpling, as if surprised, and then gratifyingly takes a much larger bite.</p>
<p>The dumplings disappear in short order, dipped into whatever sauces they unearth from the cupboards, and if Gai eats less of them than he could, busy nudging his onto Kakashi’s plate so he can continue to enjoy watching his roommate appreciate them?</p>
<p>Well, the hearty nutrient shake Kakashi just happens to unearth for him from the overcrowded fridge afterwards – that some other student who definitely wasn’t Kakashi apparently left there by accident – rounds the meal off wonderfully.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Gai makes his own unique version of <a href="https://www.japancentre.com/en/recipes/1671-mitarashi-dango-rice-dumplings">dango</a>, with some tweaks (I imagine he would have dango flour on hand and skipped the grilling, as when he tried in the past they ended up charred. He and Kakashi still ate them, but it wasn't the same. Another time Kakashi got his hands on a kitchen torch, but the less said about that, the better).</p></blockquote></div></div>
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